Recent Cruise Ship Sinking Could Hurt Industry

The news of the recent sinking of the MV Explorer, a small cruise ship cruising in the waters off the coast of Antarctica is going to put a damper on bookings for a while for all cruise lines. While how much damage news like this actually does will never be known its fair to say that a number of people will be wary of cruising. Its a shame that disasters have such and effect. This is not the kind of news I like to talk about at all. Luckily all passengers and crew were safely rescued by lifeboat. Its an incident like this that shows why the muster drill that all passengers go through before sailing is so important. For those that have never been on a cruise before, in the United States it is a requirement all passengers have to do regardless of how many times they have been on a cruise. I hear more than my share of people complaining in the middle of the drill how they have done this so many times in the past that they should be exempt. Better yet, the person or group of people standing around, drink in hand, making fun of the situation and the crew that are trying to organize everyone and explain what to do in an emergency. The MV Explorer was a small ship with only a couple hundred people on board, but with the size of many cruise ships today that could have been as many as 4000+ people evacuating.